Reworld20151112 DL

VOLUME
18
ISSUE
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2015
Creating an
Offshore
ff h Wind
Industry
The US embarks on a new energy era
Solar
Storage
Project Profile
Geothermal
Innovations in the
BOS that will keep
solar affordable
post-ITC.
Are we there yet?

How to make
energy storage
projects bankable.
Our Project of
the Year finalists
and runners up.
How geothermal
can compete
with solar.
p. 26
p. 33
p. 38
p. 40
For more information, enter 1 at REW.hotims.com
contents
Project of the
Year Finalist:
Grand Ridge
Energy Storage
Project. Credit:
Invenergy.
38
features
20
COVER STORY
Creating an Offshore
Wind Industry
As the U.S. embarks on a
new energy era, what policy
and technology initiatives
will be necessary to create
a fully functioning offshore
wind industry?
Vince Font
26
SOLAR
40
GEOTHERMAL
How Innovations in the

BOS Will Keep Solar
Affordable in a PostITC World
The Take Away on

Cost: How Geothermal
Can Compete with
Solar
Customization, optimization
and software are three key
areas where BOS will drive
lowered costs in solar PV
installation and operation.
As the geothermal industry

works to improve its image,
service providers are finding
ways to decrease the up
front cost of developing the
resource.
Vince Font
Jennifer Delony
33
ENERGY STORAGE
20
ON THE COVER
Aerial view of Block Island,
where construction has
already begun on the first
U.S. offshore wind farm.
Credit: Wikipedia. P. 20.
46
Making Energy
Storage Bankable
Independent technical due
diligence is necessary for
energy storage financing.
Terence Schuyler and
Michael Kleinberg
RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLD MAGAZINE
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48
THERMAL RENEWABLE ENERGY
Commercializing Standalone
Thermal Energy Storage
If thermal energy storage is less
expensive than batteries, why arent we
hearing more about it?
Susan Kreamer
departments & columns

5 Editors Letter
Celebrating Renewable
Energy Projects
6 Regional News
News from the Global
Renewable Energy Industry
15 The Big Question

What Is the Future of
Net-Metering?
46 Data Points
Q1 2016 U.S. Wind
Performance Forecast
in El Nios Wake
64 Advertisers index
66 Last Word
The Energy Trilemma Is
Unavoidable But It Is
Too Easily Forgotten
38 Project Profile
54
Renewable Energy Worlds

Project of the Year Finalists
and Runners Up
BIOENERGY
Are We There Yet? A Biofuel

Refinery Update
As oil prices plummet, are drop-in
aviation biofuel refineries ever going to
be built?
Tom Ewing
58
HYDROPOWER
Propelling a New Profitability

Model for Hydro Generation
Project owners seeking to get more profit
from their hydro assets should consider
harnessing minimum flow.
Kevin Quirion
On RenewableEnergyWorld.com
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Every renewable energy project has a great story to tell. The years of
planning, the struggles obtaining permits and interconnection agreements, procurement and shipping problems, construction concerns,
weather delays, and financing hurdles: these are the battle scars that
all energy projects bear once they are up and running.
Thats why we believe it is so important to celebrate once a project is
completed. Renewable Energy World, Power Engineering and Nuclear
Power International team up each year to name a Project of the Year
in each of our respective technologies. We do this because we understand how tough it is and how much dedication is necessary to see
projects through to completion.
The projects we are honoring this year in the renewable category
are fine examples of the renewable energy industry. Our finalists are
the Topaz Solar Farm, a large-scale solar project built by First Solar
and the Invenergy Grand Ridge Energy Storage project, a large energy
storage facility built next to a solar and wind farm that serves the PJM
frequency regulation market. Weve also given honorable mentions to
a hydro project that uses new technology for the first time; a biomass
facility that converted from coal to wood chips; and a 100 percent
renewable energy powered microgrid that was built for the U.S. military. Read about them in our Project Profile or in our online article.
It takes passionate individuals to carry a project to the finish line and
it is our honor to help celebrate their achievements. If you are working on a project that is set to go online before July 31, 2016, I hope youll
nominate it for an award next year. You deserve to be congratulated.
Jennifer Runyon, Chief Editor

REGIONAL
news
NORTH AMERICA
32-MW Geothermal
Power Plant Coming
Soon to Idaho
New York To Leverage

$170 Million To Expand
Clean Energy Markets
Three new NY Green Bank deals announced in November
will allow private sector partners to help improve access
EXERGY, an Italian technology compa-
to cleaner and more affordable energy for their residential,
ny that designs, engineers and manu-
commercial and agricultural customers in New York.
factures Organic Rankine Cycle sys-
NY Green Bank, a core initiative of the Governors
tems with radial outflow turbine
Reforming the Energy Vision plan, is providing a total of
technology announced that is has taken
$49 million for the three transactions and leveraging up to
a minority share investment in the
$178 million in additional private capital from private sec-
Walker Ranch Energy geothermal proj-
tor partners and financial institutions. The deals include
ect in Malta, Idaho (USA). The company
$25 million to support a new warehouse facility for Level
hopes the partnership will open up the
Solar a solar provider that designs and installs systems
North American market to its products.
for residential homes at no cost to the consumer; $4 million
The Walker Ranch Energy project is
in revolving construction loans and a partnership with U.S.
a geothermal binary plant exploiting a
Bank to support United Winds installation of over 160 dis-
medium enthalpy geothermal source
tributed wind energy projects for residential, commercial
(140C, 285F) for an installed capacity
and agricultural customers throughout New York; and $20
of 32 MWe. Agua Caliente LLC, a com-
million along with a $50 million warehouse facility provided
pany majority owned by AMG Nation-
by Citi for Renew Financial to expand its consumer lending
al Trust Bank, is the main project spon-
program to New York State.
sor. Construction is expected to begin
NY Green Bank is a $1 billion state-sponsored financial
in 2016 and the plant will be operation-
entity designed to accelerate clean energy growth in New
al in Q2, 2017. EXERGY will supply two
York State through private sector partnerships that help cre-
16-MW binary cycle units for the plant.
ate a self-sustaining marketplace and reduce the need for
EXERGYs technologies allow for
future government support. To date, NY Green Bank has
greater energy production via the
received proposals for more than $850 million of NY Green
exploitation of previously unusable heat
Bank capital, which would result in approximately $3.5 billion
sources from geothermal, waste heat
in total investments in New Yorks clean energy markets.
from industry, biomass and concen-
New York State Chairman of Energy and Finance Rich-
trated solar power, said the company.
ard Kauffman said, The wind, solar and energy efficiency
Based in Milan, Italy EXERGY exports
transactions announced by NY Green Bank today will help
its technology worldwide and holds a
us achieve our emissions reductions goals and eliminate
particular focus on high growth poten-
roadblocks on the path to developing a market-based clean
tial markets such as Turkey, South-east
energy economy in New York. Under the Governors REV
Asia, North and South America.
plan, we are transforming clean energy markets and accelerating private sector investment.
Caribbean Seeks To Use

48 Percent Renewables by
2027, Model Sustainability
The Caribbean Community
adequate access to modern ener-
coral bleaching, and increased
(CARICOM) received recommen-
gy services.
strength and frequency of tropi-
dations for how it could reach
Significant renewable energy
the ambitious regional target
resources exist across the CAR-
Caribbean countries are,
of 48 percent renewable energy
ICOM region and have yet to be
and increasingly will be, affect-
generation by 2027. The Caribbe-
fully harnessed, including bio-
ed greatly by the negative con-
an Sustainable Energy Roadmap
mass, geothermal, hydropow-
sequences of global climate
and Strategy (C-SERMS) Baseline
er, solar, waste-to-energy, and
change, said Alexander Ochs,
Report and Assessment, released
wind. There are also tremendous
Director of Climate and Energy
by the Worldwatch Institute, also
opportunities to dramatically
at Worldwatch and lead author
suggested a 33 percent reduc-
improve energy efficiency.
of the report. They have a
tion in the regions energy inten-
Realizing these energy poten-
cal storms.
strong incentive to demonstrate
sity. Achieving these goals would
tials in the region will require
to other countries that it is pos-
result in a 46 percent decrease
a robust and dynamic frame-
sible to reduce climate-alter-
in carbon dioxide emissions over
work of policy and legislation
ing emissions quickly. But even
the period.
that, so far, remains inadequate.
if the problem of global warm-
Although all CARICOM Mem-
ing did not exist, and the burn-
increasingly aware of the finan-
ber States have national energy
ing of fossil fuels did not result
cial, environmental, and social
strategies in some stage of devel-
in extensive local air and water
costs that are associated with
opment or implementation, most
pollution, CARICOM Member
continued dependence on fossil
of these lack a coherent long-
States would still have a man-
fuels. Only one CARICOM Mem-
term vision and concrete poli-
date to transition away from
ber State, Trinidad and Toba-
cies and measures. Efforts so far
these fuels as swiftly as possible,
go, has substantial fossil fuel
have been disjointed and incom-
for reasons of social opportunity,
resources of its own. All of the
plete, and they face a variety of
economic competitiveness, and
other Member States spend a siz-
technical, financial, institution-
national security. They owe it to
able share of their gross domes-
al, and capacity barriers.
their people.
Caribbean governments are
tic product including at least
Additionally, all CARICOM
The C-SERMS Baseline Report
a quarter of GDP in Guyana and
Member States share a partic-
and Assessment should serve
Montserrat on imported petro-
ular vulnerability to the envi-
as a planning tool for tackling
leum products. In Jamaica, the
ronmental and socioeconom-
existing barriers and communi-
cost of electricity is four times
ic impacts of climate change,
cating priorities that allow for a
that in the United States. And in
caused largely by the burning
swift transition toward sustain-
Haiti and Suriname, large por-
of fossil fuels. Impacts include
able energy systems in CARI-
tions of the population still lack
sea-level rise, water scarcity,
COM Member States.
REGIONAL
news
EUROPE
Waste-to-Energy Plant Set for UK

MBV Energy Recovery, a joint venture between Black
investment entity that is building a portfolio of
& Veatch and MWH announced plans to execute a
waste-to-energy assets, is providing funding. The
87 million waste-to-energy project in Cheshire, UK.
group comprises Infracapital, Aurium Capital Mar-
The 21.5-MW renewable energy plant will be devel-
kets, Foresight Group and Helios Energy Investments.
oped by CoGen UK at Ince Park Resource Recovery
The UK market for small-scale, waste-to-energy
Centre and use more than 150,000 tonnes of materi-
plants is strong according to the JV, which believes
al that would otherwise go to landfill.
Ince will be the first of several similar wins
The Bioenergy Infrastructure Group, a new
between now and spring 2016.
DONG Energy To Build The Worlds

Largest Offshore Wind Farm
DONG Energy announced that it
2018, at which time it will be the
will come from UK manufac-
plans to construct a 660-MW off-
worlds biggest offshore wind
turing facilities and create local
shore wind farm in the Irish Sea,
farm, surpassing the 630-MW
jobs. DONG will use two differ-
approximately 19 kilometers off
London Array Offshore Wind
ent turbines for the project, 40
the coast of Cumbria. DONG has
Farm. The farm will be con-
MHI Vestas Offshore Wind 8-MW
secured all necessary consents,
structed and operated under the
turbines and 47 Siemens 7-MW
completed site assessments and
UKs EMR FID-enabling regime
offshore turbines.
with a fixed price for the

first 15 years of production.
Samuel Leupold, Execu-
Service operation vessel for offshore wind

farms. Credit: stensj Rederi AS.
In related news, DONG Energy announced that it selected

Norway-based shipping compa-
tive VP, DONG Energy, said
ny stensj Rederi to oversee
British offshore wind has
the building of a vessel for oper-
seen phenomenal growth
ations at Race Bank Offshore
in recent years. A prereq-
Wind Farm in the UK. The vessel
uisite for long-term growth
will function as a mother ship
in the industry is that off-
for wind turbine technicians
shore wind eventually can
when they perform maintenance
compete on costs with other
work on Race Bank Offshore
has signed the majority of the
energy technologies. Building
Wind Farm in the United King-
contracts for supply and installa-
Walney Extension will bring us
dom. Rolls Royce will design the
tion to build the Walney Exten-
one step closer to that target...Im
vessel in close cooperation with
sion Offshore Wind Farm.
also excited about the fact that
stensj Rederi. Astilleros Gon-
turbine blades, part of the foun-
dan, based in Spain, is building
dations and cable installation
the vessel.
The wind farm is expected to be fully commissioned in

8
AFRICA AND MIDDLE EAST
Geothermal Software Could Aid Industry

in Exploration, Drilling and Operations
GeothermEx and Schlumberg-
well targeting. For the operations
er are working together to devel-
phase, they are using numeri-
op improved technology for the
cal modeling techniques to opti-
geothermal industry during all
mize production and injection
phases of geothermal develop-
strategies to maximize return on
ment. For the exploration phase,
investment.
the companies are implementing
A recent example of new tech-
an integrated workflow where all
nology developed by Geother-
data, interpretation and assump-
mEx and Schlumberger is a plug-
tions combine into a working
in that integrates the geothermal
conceptual model that identi-
reservoir simulator TETRAD
Wells, permeable zones and
fies the need for further explo-
and Schlumbergers Petrel E&P
temperature contours in geothermal
ration and improves the success
software platform, a 3-D analy-
field model. Credit: Schlumberger.
rate of the first full-diameter
sis and visualization tool widely
wells. For the production-drill-
used in the oil and gas industry.
additional avenues to lever-
ing phase, the companies are
The TETRAD plug-in adds insight
age Schlumbergers historic and
integrating well design, equip-
and efficiency in geothermal res-
significant investment in R&D
ment specification and drilling
ervoir modeling, and is now used
for geothermal applications.
procedures to increase drilling
in all of GeothermExs modeling
Increased reservoir simulation
efficiency, and implementing a
projects.
efficiency and improved visu-
real-time data feedback system

to facilitate rapid and improved
Together, GeothermEx and

Schlumberger are exploring
alization capabilities is just one

examplemore is on the way.
OPIC, SolarReserve and ACWA To Develop

100-MW South African CSP Plant
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation
electricity, even after the sun sets. This is a criti-
(OPIC) signed an agreement with U.S. based ener-
cal development in a country where frequent power
gy developer SolarReserve and Saudi Arabia-based
outages have been cited as an obstacle to economic
ACWA Power, recognizing OPICs $400 million com-
growth. OPIC support of the Redstone project is also
mitment of debt financing to support the develop-
a significant milestone for President Obamas Power
ment of the Redstone Concentrating Solar Power
Africa initiative, of which OPIC is a key contributor.
(CSP) project in Northern Cape, South Africa.
Power Africa aims to bring new power access to the
The 100-MW project will use SolarReserves CSP

technology plus molten salt energy storage to deliver
more than 600 million sub-Saharan Africans currently living without energy access.
REGIONAL
news
ASIA-PACIFIC
Renewable Represent Largest

Growth of Japans Energy Sector
Japans cumulative installed elec-
Renewable installed capac-
importing natural gas and oil.
tricity capacity will rise from
ity will increase from 37.8 GW
A new feed-in tariff [FIT]
317.5 gigawatts (GW) in 2014 to an
in 2015 to 83.3 GW by 2025, ris-
system introduced in July 2012
estimated 389.8 GW by 2025, rep-
ing at a CAGR of 8.2 percent, rep-
will drive renewable installed
resenting a moderate Compound
resenting the largest growth in
capacity growth, as utility com-
Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of
Japans energy sector.
panies must purchase power
1.9 percent, according to research

and consulting firm GlobalData.
Chiradeep Chatterjee, Global-
from renewable energy sourc-
Datas senior analyst who covers
es, including solar, wind, small
The companys latest report
the power sector, said: Despite
hydro, geothermal and biomass,
states that while thermal sourc-
the new Japanese governments
at pre-set premiums for up to 20
es will contribute the majori-
rethink on the decision to phase
years.
ty of installed capacity, with an
out nuclear power after the
expected overall share of 54.7
Fukushima disaster, there is still
a consequence, higher rates
percent, other renewable sourc-
a focus on promoting renewable
for renewable power are being
es (excluding hydropower) will
power, not only to reduce reli-
passed on in the form of inflat-
more than double by the end of
ance on the nuclear sector but
ed power bills, which adds extra
the forecast period.
also to tackle the huge cost of
burden to the consumer.
The analyst added that, as
Enphase Energy Unveils Pricing for Residential

Energy Storage in Australia and New Zealand
Enphase Energy announced that Australia and New
monitor consumption, which is zero export com-
Zealand are the first markets to receive the Enphase
pliant, making it suited to solar PV systems in
Home Energy Solution, which combines solar gener-
Queensland and New South Wales, said Enphase.
ation, energy control, and energy storage.
The third component is an AC battery and the forth
According to Enphase 78 percent of existing sys-
is called Enphase Enlighten, a cloud-based platform
tem owners in the countries have indicated an
that connects the Enphase Home Energy Solution
interest in the combined solution, which the com-
with smart devices such as the Google Nest.
pany will roll out starting in December 2015, with
Enphase is offering introductory pricing of the
the Enphase AC Battery available in Q2 2016. The
Enphase Energy AC Battery of 1,150 AUD/kWh,
four components of the Enphase Home Energy Solu-
which is based on volume purchases by direct part-
tion include a microinverter and a bidirection-
ners. The company said that its distribution and
al communications gateway that gives homeown-
installation partners will determine the final retail
ers control of the energy in their home so they can
price and installation costs.
10
Powered by:
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& EXPO
February 24-25, 2016 Westin Boston Waterfront Boston, MA

Same great conference.
Brand new name.
Solar Power PV Conference & Expo (formerly known as PV America) heads
back to Boston and will kick off the 2016 year for the Northeast!
Early bird rates are now available!

Register online at www.events.solar
REGIONAL
news
LATIN AMERICA
Conergy and NEXTracker

Launch the Latin America and
Caribbean Solar Alliance
Downstream solar company Conergy and NEX-
sharing forums; and conducting education and
Tracker launched the Latin America and Caribbean
advocacy.
Solar Alliance (LACSA). The alliances mission is to
Marco Garcia, Chief Commercial Officer of NEX-
spur initiatives among solar industry professionals
Tracker said this is an extraordinary time for solar
doing business in Latin America and the Caribbean
growth in Latin America; the PV pipeline is huge.
and present a unified voice to advance solar indus-
He believes that LACSA will enable the company
try goals. LACSA members have deep roots in Latin
to help sow the seeds for solar to flourish in the
America and strong government ties; the coalition
region, he said.
aims to initiate and support policies that further

solar deployment.
Latin Americas solar market is poised for rapid

growth and sophistication, echoed Andrew de
LACSA will spearhead four main activities: sponsoring ongoing Latin America-focused solar events
Pass, CEO of Conergy.

LACSA has a nine-person board that will cre-
across the globe; underscoring practical knowledge
ate initiatives and set goals for the solar industry
from Latin America experts at solar industry con-
to spearhead in the Latin America and Caribbean
ferences; facilitating online knowledge and content
region, which will spur greater PV deployment.
Renewvia Energy Sells 26-MW Solar Project in Uruguay

to SunEdison; Launches Projects in Kenya, Saipan
U.S.-based solar development
The Alto Cielo solar project is
procurement is desired as
firm Renewvia Energy Corpora-
located in the Toms Gomenso-
opposed to forced, said Trey Jar-
tion said it completed the last dis-
ro locality of Uruguays Artigas
rard, CEO of Renewvia Energy
position contingency for a 26-MW
Department. Connection of the
adding, it was also gratifying to
solar project in Uruguay. The
Alto Cielo solar plant is expect-
shepherd in one of the countrys
project is among the countrys
ed in Q4 2015.The project has a
very first solar procurements.
first solar power procurements.
28-year power purchase agree-
Renewvia Energy owned the proj-
ment with the National Admin-
breaking ground in various other
ect through the special purpose
istration of Power Plants and
regions of the globe. Renewvia
entity Alto Cielo. Solarpack, a
Electrical Transmissions (UTE),
Energy is developing its first com-
multinational solar power devel-
Uruguays state-owned utility.
mercial solar microgrid facilities
opment company, was the inter-
My partners and I are excit-
Renewvia Energy is also
in Kenya, as well as in Saipan.
im owner of the project before
ed to be working in a geogra-
Both projects should be commis-
SunEdison took possession.
phy where utility solar power
sioned in Q4 2015
12
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The Big Question
Stakeholders weigh in on worldwide renewable energy issues
What Is the Future

of Net-Metering?
DISTRIBUTED SOLAR continues to sweep across the globe as home and
businesses owners install solar panels and generate their own electricity. Net-metering laws in many regions of the world allow customers to receive payments equal to the retail rate of electricity for
any power they generate and send into the grid. As more customers have adopted solar, however, utilities are starting to re-think
net-metering policies, with some utility commissions going as far
as stopping it altogether. Utilities need to consider how to pay for
a grid that is no longer solely powered by centralized generation,
while customers, who want more control over their energy use,
need to be compensated for investments that they make that benefit
the grid. Both sides need to agree on the value of solar and distributed energy resources.
As regulators increasingly rethink net energy metering and netmetering battles are waged across the globe, we ask this months big
question: What is the Future of Net-Metering?
Bill Gallip, Engineering Manager
There are three issues that need to be addressed: 1) the original

intent of net-metering, 2) net-metering at wholesale vs. retail rates,
3) paying to support the grid. I believe that the solar industry is
mature enough to survive without net-metering at elevated rates, so
if the tariff were reduced to wholesale levels it would be workable.
This still leaves the issue of paying for grid support. There is
an argument within the electric vehicle community that they
shouldnt be taxed extra (they are not paying the road tax built
into the cost of gas at the pump) because they are saving the environment, but they still want the same access to well maintained
roads as conventional vehicles. The same applies to DG and access
to the grid. For users without DG capability grid support is levied
as a percentage of power used. I believe it is right for power distributers to collect a nominal fee from DG generators for the privilege of pushing power over the same lines that they expect to be
there when the DG is not available.
Credit: Shutterstock.
15
The Big Question
John Massey, Energy Analyst & Trainer
It depends how far into the future you want to look, but Id say eventually:
If home-owners (or other grid-edge users) want to keep connected to the
grid, which has to be paid for, there will be a connection fee to pay.
If distributed energy is put into storage and then used when you get home,
the financial benefit is that it offsets buying energy at retail prices from the
grid. So the meter just doesnt turn, since youre not importing energy from
outside (though itll be a smart meter anyway, so it wont mechanically turn
anyway...).
If distributed energy is fed into the grid while youre out, it is effectively
part of the wholesale power supply, so youll be paid wholesale market rate if
its used which will depend on a smart system determining whether its an
economic source to use at a particular time, just like any other power plant.
Itll be up to your own smart system to decide whether best to store or to feed
in (based on price signals from the grid).
Chris Hoffa, Energy Manager
I believe the answer to this dilemma is not related to the fate of net-metering
regulatory laws, but is rooted in the need for a utility business model change.
Distributed generation should become part of the utility business model via
the utility being engaged in designing, installing, and maintaining systems
for residential, commercial, industrial, and community level projects. The old
100 percent central generation and distribution utility model is under pressure and will become a dinosaur soon. Successful utilities must make PV and
other distributed generation sources part of their business model. This would
seem to relieve the utility and regulatory business pressures caused by the
current surge in distributed generation and still allow it to develop.
Riccardo Battisti, Renewable Energy Project Manager
In Italy, exactly for the reasons you explained, there is a clear trend towards
high self-consumption rates before choosing photovoltaic. In the residential
sector, this can be reached either through home automation or storage. For
larger users (commercial or industrial), usually a self-consumption of at least
80 percent can be obtained.
Michael Dim, Renewable Energy Marketing Executive
There are three main drivers behind the prosumer market and net-metering
growth, which is expected in the next years. First is the drastic reduction of
feed-in tariffs in many countries. Therefore feed-in tariffs started to lose their
16
The Big Question
power as driver of renewable energy growth since 2011 and this process will
continue. The second driver is grid parity, which is progressing and by 2025
not only sun-belt countries, but also a lot of countries with less solar irradiation will have grid parity. The third driver is growth of the smart grid concept, market and services, which make it easier to integrate renewable energy systems for net-metering.
Alex Peykov, Reliability and Engineering Manager
California utilities are trying to change the rules regarding net metering as
well. They are very unhappy that some of their customers are using the grid
during the night but make enough energy during the day to completely offset their electricity bills and want them to pay more for the luxury. I guess
the benefits of decentralized grids and more power during peak demand are
muted when its affecting your ability to generate income from your customers. Net-metering agreements will disappear and home and business owners
will soon be on their own. One way to combat this change could be battery
banks. I wonder if utilities will attack those next.
Eric Barz, Town Planner
The industry needs to reinvent itself. Maybe it should be our UPS instead of
our energy source. I dont want banks of huge Edison NiFe or deep-cycle AGM
batteries in my house that need to be managed and replaced down the road
in order to have solar on my roof. The utilities have the wherewithal to build
massive batteries and pumped storage using technologies that may not scale
down due to hazardous materials, energy density, complex maintenance
requirements, permitting, etc. Plus, there will always be customers that cannot adopt distributed energy due to lack of ownership, urban densities, or
sheer demand (e.g. smelters, automation, computing power). Its not always
as one-sided as the utilities might have us believe. There are companies out
there making a niche living off helping utilities shed peak demand and/or
avoid new generation facilities, so I know that solar can be a boon to utilities
whose peak summertime demand corresponds with peak solar production.
Ankur Kumar Jha, Solar Start-up Manager
In India net-metering can have a great future. But since the mechanism is
new, we are hitting and identifying the hurdles that are operational, financial
and regulatory related.
While some countries have provisions of monetary payment for energy
fed into the grid, the same cannot be implemented across India. The reason
17
The Big Question
being electricity is a concurrent subject between central and state governments and so we have variation in policies from state to state. But the most
important reason is that the financial condition of distribution companies of
India is very fragile. A few states are exceptions where these companies are
doing really well. Some of them pay for energy fed at Average Power Purchase
Cost (APPC) rather than the retail tariff.
This makes sense as rooftop net-meter systems are connected with distribution systems, which eliminates transmission costs and losses. Distribution
losses are also reduced and so does the APPC of DISCOMS.
While utility-scale solar projects are competing really well against utilities,
the rooftop segment has been lagging. What becomes of the latter depends on
what actions are taken to address the issues in the present.
James Kempf, Research Engineer
Clearly, a reorganization in the electric utilities market to reflect the new reality of distributed energy is needed. Unfortunately, the attempt in the early
2000s to disaggregate production and transport failed due to a faulty market design in California, which Enron used to game the system. This market
design has been very successful in Germany for fostering renewable energy
deployment, together with a preferential feed-in tariff for renewable energy. If
utilities became like Internet service providers, where they were just responsible for transport, and generation was required to be in a separate business
with a feed-in tariff that reflected the full value of renewables (including services such as VAR stabilization, etc.) net metering could be done away with.
But given the failure in the early 2000s, net metering is really the only way
for distributed generation funded by property owners to succeed.
Given that, there should be an accounting of the many services, beside just
generating electrons, that distributed generation can provide to net. These
may require the deployment of advanced inverter technology, but until they
are brought into the equation, utilities will view net metering as a loss for
them and will continue to fight it.
Russell Higgins, Architect
Net metering is great PR - run it in reverse, zero out your bill! It got peoples attention. Most utilities limit PV production to average building use.
This keeps us from making best use of resources embedded in the inverters, cables, labor. This LIMITS our PV power production. As Hawaii shows,
the future is paying ALL producers a fair wholesale price (50 percent retail
in Hawaii) that represent not just the power, but the synergies of distributed
peak energy production (as documented in FERC reports to all our utilities).
18
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COV E R S TO RY
Creating an
Offshore Wind
Industry
VINCE FONT, Contributor
It is an auspicious time for the U.S. offshore wind

industry. Driven by the fact that a present count of offshore wind farms in the United States amounts to
nil, there is a great push underway to leverage one of
the countrys most abundant and untapped natural
resources for the production of clean energy. A wave of
As the United States starts to

build its first offshore wind farm,
what policy and technology initiatives
will be necessary to create a fully
functioning offshore wind industry?
recent conferences, including a White House summit
on the matter, have served to spark serious discussion
on what remains to be done to create a robust U.S. offshore wind industry.
The Block Island Factor

At center stage is the Block Island Wind Farm, a 30
MW installation currently under construction in
the waters some 15 miles off the southern coast
20
The London Array is the worlds

largest offshore wind farm.
Credit: London Array Limited.
21
Cov e r S to ry
He added that that the significantly higher number of

financially responsible parties involved in large-scale
projects could increase the
difficulty of holding everything together.
Late Starts and Missed

Opportunities
The 630-MW London Array in UK waters. Credit: London Array Limited.
Although the U.S. appears

poised to take concrete steps
in the direction of offshore
wind energy, many share the
opinion it should have been
much further along by now.
In a paper titled The Time
Has Come for Offshore Wind
Power in the United States,
professors from the University of Delaware (UD) suggest
the U.S. offshore wind industry may actually be worse off
today than it was 10 years
ago following the passage of
the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Jeremy Firestone, School
of Marine Science and Policy professor and lead author
of Rhode Island. If all goes according to plan, Block Island will

begin commercial operations in 2016, becoming the first operational offshore wind farm in the United States. Small though
it may be, Block Island represents a crucial first step that has
served to invigorate the proponents of offshore wind development following a decade of stagnation.
Deepwater Wind CEO Jeffrey Grybowski, whose company is
spearheading the projects development, said he believes Block
Island is just the start of something much bigger, and added he
is more optimistic now than ever that offshore wind will take
hold as a transformative means of shaping the future of the U.S.
renewable energy mix, while also revitalizing the local economies that will benefit from these
installations.
In Lessons From U.S. Offshore
Wind Projects to Date, Keith Martin of Chadbourne & Parke said
Block Island serves as an example of the importance of scale
when tackling early offshore wind
efforts. Block Island demonstrates it may be better to make
the first project a small project as
Lillgrund Wind Farm is located about 10km off the coast of southern
proof of concept before moving
to a larger scale, Martin wrote.
22
Sweden. Credit: Mariusz Pazdziora.
Aerial view of Block Island

off the coast of Rhode Island,
where the first U.S. wind
farm is under construction.
Credit: Wikipedia.
of the UD paper, called the embryonic state of the offshore wind

industry in America disheartening and said the past decade
was an era of missed opportunity.
Compared to Europe, the U.S. has far to go. There are now over
10 GW of installed offshore wind capacity throughout 11 European nations, with another 26.4 GW of projects already consented and 98 GW of offshore wind farms in the planning. In the UK
alone, there are 1,452 offshore wind turbines accounting for 5.1
GW of capacity. The UK is also home to the worlds largest offshore
wind farm, London Array, which alone has a capacity of 630 MW.
Adding perspective, Grybowski drew comparisons to the early
days of the European offshore wind market and where the U.S.
is today. What were going through in the U.S. is not really surprising, because the same thing happened in Europe, Grybowski said at a recent briefing held by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI). It took a long time for the industry to
take off in Europe, and then it exploded.
The result of nearly a quarter century of continued deployment and investment, the European offshore wind industry saw
exponential growth in the decade between 2004 and 2014, adding almost 7.5 GW of capacity. Current in-construction projects in
Europe will bring cumulative capacity to 10.9 GW by 2016.
Bruce Bailey, CEO of AWS Truepower, said much of that success is owed to broad support of renewable energy initiatives
among policymakers and the public. There has always been a
greater appetite in European for renewable energy, Bailey said,
pointing also to the fact that European offshore wind has enjoyed
a greater than 20-year jump on the U.S.
Offshore Wind Stalling in China

The U.S isnt the only world
superpower having trouble
launching an offshore wind
industry. Things are rocky
in China, too, where a recent
report states the country has
fallen behind by three years
on its bid to develop 5 GW of
offshore wind capacity.
Shi Pengfei, honorary chairman of the Chinese Wind Energy Association, cited high risk and cost
as the main reasons behind
Chinas failure to achieve its
goal although the country
does have a modest number
of operational offshore wind
farms at just under 660 MW.
In response, the National Energy Administration in
China has issued directives
to get the industry back on
track, which involve coordination between various agencies to put supporting policies
and technologies into place.
23
The Sprog Vindmlle

Wind Park in the Baltic
Sea. Credit: Fxp42.
Leveraging the European Model

In the UD paper, Firestone
and associates identified a
combination of political will,
price and policy support,
and spatial planning as the
driving forces that propelled
the European offshore wind
industry to great success
leading to the natural presumption that Europe could
serve as a model from which
all other lagging nations,
including the U.S. and China,
might learn a great deal.
European technology and
experience in the arena may
also serve as the catalyst
to jumpstarting the fledgling U.S. industry. Grybowski
said that continued development of offshore wind projects in the U.S. will rely heavily at first on the importation
of the existing European supply chain. He said this will
gradually lead to the creation of an established stateside infrastructure capable of
operating on its own.
Paul Rich, director of project development for US Wind,
said at the EESI briefing
24
that leveraging European technology will enable offshore wind

developers to finally begin to establish an industry, a source
of workforce development, and centers of excellence in the
United States.
Proposed Solutions
According to Firestone, one of the key stumbling blocks that has
handicapped offshore wind efforts is the perception that development should follow the path laid by offshore oil endeavors.
Emphasizing the great differences that exist between the two
industries including the fact that oil can be shipped across vast
distances and sold, whereas offshore wind power generation
relies on an established local grid Firestone said comparing the
two is like trying to put a square peg in a round hole.
Firestone and associates propose a number of solutions that
will serve to pave the way forward. These include the establishment of a long-term tax credit that takes into consideration offshore winds long planning horizon; greater emphasis on loan
guarantees that put developers on more solid footing; and focus
on interstate collaboration, rather than policy they caution may
end up reinforcing competition among states when cooperation
is needed.
Likewise, Bailey emphasized the critical need for the installation of an investment tax credit, stating, If nuclear power
receives tax incentives, so should offshore wind.
What Lies Ahead

Beyond Block Island, a handful of initiatives loom encouragingly. Neighboring state Maryland is in the process of performing
survey work and pursuing financial incentives for offshore wind.
Meanwhile, US Wind has begun the planning stages of a proposed 500 MW project to be located just off the coast of Ocean
City, Maryland.
Cov e r S to ry
Further up the food chain,

the Bureau of Ocean Energy
Management (BOEM) plans to
auction some 350,000 acres of
sea off the coast of New Jersey in November. The BOEM
also teamed with the Department of the Interior for an
environmental assessment
and discussion of offshore
wind development in North
Carolina.
At the recent Summit on
Offshore Wind, the White
House announced the establishment of an Interagency Work Group whose purpose will be to aid in the
THERES A LOT OF
LIFE IN ONE BATTERY
coordination of efforts between federal agencies devoted to offshore wind development. Additional commitments announced
include the creation of a multi-state project funded by the
Department of Energy to develop a roadmap for large-scale
deployment, and the establishment of an international forum to
exchange best practices between nations.
Taking all of this into account, it would be easy to declare that
growth of the U.S. offshore wind industry is imminent. However, its not a foregone conclusion. Whether the industry takes off
in the U.S., and how fast growth will occur when those steps are
taken, remains to be seen.
The technology is there, Bailey said. But its the establishment of long-term policy that will have the greatest influence on
how quickly the offshore wind industry develops in the United
States.
Editors note: Want to learn more about offshore wind in the
U.S.? Click to check out the archive of our recently-aired webcast,
titled: Doing Business in the U.S. Offshore Wind Industry.
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25
SOLAR
How Innovations in
BOS Will Keep Solar
Affordable In a
Post-ITC World
Industry professionals point to customization, optimization and
software as three key areas where BOS will drive lowered costs in
solar PV installation and operation.
VINCE FONT, Contributor
Short for balance-of-systems, BOS is one of most important

yet seldom considered aspects of solar power generation.
Its a catch-all term that encompasses everything beyond
the solar panel itself, including inverters, racking systems,
cables, wires, and switches. Even software and labor fall
under the BOS umbrella.
Currently, BOS accounts for nearly 80 percent of the total
cost of solar PV installation a figure thats risen rapidly
in recent years, up from 58 percent in 2007. The good news
is that the cost of BOS components and services is dropping,
albeit not quite as quickly as modules themselves, and further innovations are predicted to drive the cost of solar even
lower.
Where BOS is concerned, the vast majority of residential and large-scale solar customers are entirely unaware of
what it entails and know even less about the role it plays in
getting a solar panel to do what it was built to do. Three of
the most potentially impactful areas of BOS innovation lie in
the areas of customization, optimization and software.
26
Customization:
Made-to-Order Solar
Solar customization
describes the discipline of
looking at every single aspect
of a proposed installation
prior to spending a dime
on equipment. According
to Zuzana Piras, marketing
communications manager for
SolarBOS, the extent to which
balance-of-systems components is forgotten is pervasive, even among commercial
and large-scale utility solar
Circuit breaker recombiners and

floating disconnect combiners
make up the BOS. Credit: SolarBOS.
projects approximate cost

long in advance, allowing for
solar adopters to secure necessary financing.
Optimization: Juicing the

Array for All Its Worth
systems installers hired to perform the work.

There are many, many pieces to the puzzle and often the
most expensive and most critical components with the longest
lead times are thought of first, Piras said. The electrical balance of systems components tend to be at the end of this list.
As a result of this common oversight, solar installation costs
can rise and lead to extended time frames for a projects completion. This is where our customers could save themselves a lot
of time, money and headaches, Piras said, adding that clarifying technical specifications and seeking customized solutions in
advance is critical to the timely completion of any solar project.
No two solar projects are the same, Piras said. If we figure
out at the beginning of the process what someone needs, it saves
everyone a ton of time and problems. Piras said that customization can also provide a more accurate accounting of a solar
The concept of optimization

isnt new, and its certainly
not new to solar. But a growing number of PV product
manufacturers are leading
the charge in design improvements that can do more with
less, reducing the overall cost
of solar installation.
Trina Solar, a module
developer headquartered in
China, is developing smart
solar modules that provide
maximum power optimization by enabling diagnostics
and monitoring of individual
modules in real time. Smart
solar modules, designed for
plug-and-play functionality,
also greatly reduce installation times and can result in
a simplification of the supply chain, which translates to
decreased systems cost.
In addition to developing
smart solar modules, Trina is
one of the first developers to
introduce utility-scale modules capable of operating at
1500 volts, compared to the
standard of 1000 volts. The
significance of increased voltage capacity in solar systems
is that it lowers the loss of
power during transmission.
27
Solar
Systems configured to operate on higher voltage can also

accommodate longer strings
of modules, which in turn
decreases the amount of necessary components within a
given solar installation.
According to Jeff Dorety,
president of the Trina Solar
Americas Region, optimization and improvement of solar
equipment will play a significant role in the proliferation
of commercial and residential solar by chipping away at
the increased costs associated
with the reduction of the ITC
[Investment Tax Credit].
Other areas of BOS optimization focus range from
the electrical to the mechanical. We are also working
with suppliers to add features
that can reduce the number
of mechanical mounting parts
Jing Tian, head of global marketing for Trina Solar stands in front of the
Trinasmart Module display. Credit: RenewableEnergyWorld.com.
needed, said Jing Tian, Head of Global Marketing for Trina. This
can greatly reduce the overall system BOS cost.
Another company making headway into the reduction of BOS
cost through optimization is Alion Energy, an EPC and O&M service provider that employs robotic technology to perform tasks
typically handled by humans,
like panel installation and maintenance. This reduces time
frames and associated labor
costs, and can also improve
panel performance, particularly
in environments where corrosive
elements can reduce the efficacy
of solar modules.
Software: Programmable
Energy Management
Driven by Energy Storage
Zuzana Piras, marketing communications manager for SolarBOS. Credit:
RenewableEnergyWorld.com.
28
Software is the technology that

drives the world, and nowhere
SOLAR
is that most evident than in

the solar industry, where an
interesting transformation is
taking place: inverter manufacturers are beginning to
take on the attributes of software developers. Its a curious hybridization within an
industry traditionally planted
firmly in the physical world.
Brian Korgaonkar, senior
product manager for Enphase
Energy, described it as a
change of mentality and
a moving beyond the solar
solution to understand how
everything works together.
The software programs
that power the activities of
solar arrays are among the
most rapidly developing and
commonly deployed facets
that comprise the full solar
BOS picture. Solar software
is used to perform a variety
of operation-critical tasks,
including tracking energy production, monitoring
whole-system health, gauging panel performance, and
programming battery storage
and deployment options.
It is an area of the solar
industry rife with opportunity for development, which is
whats driving companies like
Enphase Energy to transformative growth.
We now have an equivalent number of software engineers and hardware engineers, said Mark Fritts,
North Americas
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more sophistication on the software side, that glue that stitches

everything together.
BOS Cost Drops May

Keep PV Affordable
Across the world, solar power
incentives are on the wane. In
the U.S, the ITC is facing imminent expiration and when that
happens, residential and commercial PV may slow to a crawl
due to increased costs of installation and operation a prosMark Fritts (left) and Brian Korgaonkar (right) stand in front of the
pect that could deal a major setEnphase AC Battery. The increasing interest in battery storage is driving
back to an industry still in its
some inverter manufactures to focus on software to control Energy
formative years.
Management Systems. Credit: RenewableEnergyWorld.com.
But in deus ex machina fashion, innovations in BOS could
Enphases director of prodoffset that increased cost. Some experts project that prices for
uct marketing. Historicalsolar systems will drop by 40 percent between now and 2020,
ly, you would have seen a
fueled by technological improvements in customization, optimimuch different balance. The
zation and software. If nothing else, BOS innovations will serve
interconnected nature of
to keep the solar industry alive and kicking long after the ineviour solution requires a lot
table sunset of government subsidies.
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E N E RG Y S TO R AG E
Making Energy Storage Bankable

How independent
technical due
diligence accelerates
energy storage financing.
performance predictions for energy infrastructure projects.

This has been the norm throughout the history and evolution of our modern electrical system, whether applied to
coal-fired power, gas turbine or hydroelectric plants. The
ability to finance and the terms associated with it are directly linked to the appetite for perceived risk that lenders are
TERENCE SCHUYLER and MICHAEL
willing to accept.
KLEINBERG, DNV GL
As more innovative technologies and system architectures raise the possibilities of less expensive, more costThird party independent engieffective and sustainable ways to produce and distribute
neering and technical due dilielectricity, market growth depends on understanding and
gence has long been a requirequantifying their associated technical and financial risks.
ment of lenders and developers
Whether through traditional or creative funding mechfor power and infrastructure
anisms, lenders for new and emerging renewable enerproject financing. Lenders
gy projects must ensure that the technologies and project
require project developers to
designs are reliable and robust enough to satisfy the perundertake the necessary risk
formance and lifetime projections that are integral in the
management step of providing
deal structures they will support.
independent assessment reports
Early-stage technology is traditionally funded through
on the design, engineering,
cash or owner-operated sources in demonstration projects,
construction, contracting and
until such time as the technology and projects are deemed
bankable. This
process has been
undertaken by
both the wind and
solar industries
in their respective
market growth.
Energy storage
projects have,
until recently, also
followed this trajectory. In the last
five years lendBoth Technology Evaluations and Independent Engineering reviews include visits to
ers have become
more comfortable
field to observe the performance of operating systems. Credit: DNV GL.
33
E n E rg y S to r ag E
Market focused business

+ product development
pt
er
Product
risk
majority
rly
a
E
In n o v a t o r
s ea
a
rl y
FLOW
SH
CA
La
t
ty
do
VAL
LE
Early
commercialization
i
or
aj
m
TABLE 1
Technology
creation
with the track record and

predictability of most solar
and wind technologies primarily through their reliance
on the risk mitigation and
assessment reports that have
been conducted by independent engineering firms in the
past. However, lenders still
require emerging technologies, in particular, to undergo the rigors of independent
assessment reports to secure
confidence in future returns
and thus become bankable.
Energy storage is viewed
as the next enabling technology that will be required to
cost-effectively facilitate grid
modernization, while allowing for the full potential of
renewable energy power generation and distribution to
be realized. The rapid pace
of development of new storage technologies and project
deployments is widely viewed
Lag
T
Y OF DEA
g a rd s
Bankability and
ease of financing
Similar to the Technology Adoption Life Cycle introduced by Geoffrey

Moore, technology bankability will have to cross the chasm of risk.
Credit: DNV GL.
as following the same path as solar and wind with respect to

the need for mainstream financing. However, unlike solar and
wind which rely on debt, equity and PPA financing structures with predictable fixed revenues and built-in cost escalators energy storage projects have the potential for multiple
use applications within a given project enabling variable revenue streams. This increased flexibility serves as both an opportunity for creative project development and a risk to realizing
full revenue projections.
State RPS uncertainty, insurance protections, product guarantees, energy capacity warranties and government tax incentives are all key challenges to sustainable growth and adoption of energy storage. As regulatory and utility policies are just
Company Review
Technology Review
Quality Review
Reliability Review
Company history
Design for reliability
Manufacturing
evaluation
Field history and

root cause analysis
Product line sales history
Product specifications
Quality Management
Systems (QMS)
Warranty and available

guarantees
High-level financials
Architecture and
topology
In house and 3rd party

testing and certification
Product support
infrastructure
Intellectual property
Product efficiency
Regulatory compliance
Operating site visit
Components of a typical Independent Technology Evaluation (Bankability) report. Credit DNV GL.
34
E n E r g y S to r ag E
Grid Energy Storage System

> 1 MWh
Distributed Energy Storage System

> 1 MWh
Microgrids
& off-grid
GRID
Generation
Transmission
Distribution
Retail
C&I
Depending on the customer requests, energy storage systems can cover the following applications:
Voltage and frequency regulation
Hybrid and microgrid systems
Peak shaving/time shifting
Local grid support
Renewables firming and ramp rate
Demand charge reduction
Back-up power and resiliency
T&D deferral
Whether for large-scale utility or distributed applications, energy storage projects have the potential for multiple
and variable revenue streams. Credit: DNV GL.
now emerging that will help

firm up the revenue potential
and array of potential financing structures, one common
denominator will prevail
the need to offset perceived
risk through independent
validation and technical due
diligence.
The energy storage industry is seeing many new software providers partnering
with product manufactures
and project developers. The
near-term applications that
include behind-the-meter bill
management (e.g. demand
reduction) ramp rate and frequency response control (grid
support) and cyber-security
and reliability (future revenue
protections) will all require detailed due diligence and validation

to facilitate project financing. Energy storage project financing
will rely on well-reputed independent engineering firms to conduct the two most prominent risk-mitigation services needed to
facilitate bankability and accelerate market growth: 1) Technology Evaluation assessments of the products and integrated systems (often referred to as Bankability Studies) and 2) Independent Engineering assessments of the projects being introduced
for funding (often referred to as IE reports).
Independent Technology Evaluation reports (or Bankability Studies) focus primarily on assessment of the technological
aspects of the products and include a high-level review of the
company, manufacturing, quality, and business model, and generally report on the list of topics in Table 1.
Although required by the developers and lenders, these Technology Evaluation reports are typically contracted by the product
or system manufacturers. They include an intensive two-phase
evaluation with the first phase intended to provide critical feedback on issues or gaps that can be filled to further facilitate the
product bankability. This report phase proves particularly valuable to companies entering new regional markets with differing
35
regulatory and certification standards, and for those

unfamiliar with the expectations of the lenders. The
final report is often used by
the manufacturers as a critical marketing tool and is provided to potential customers
as well as the financial community. These reports are
also evaluated and referenced
in support of the project IE
report process.
IE reports are most commonly contracted by project developers and provided directly to the project
lenders. The result of these
reports often determines the
go/no-go decisions to provide
funding and is used to determine the rates and terms
of deal structures. The full
scope of work for IE reports
typically cover both the preconstruction and final construction phases of the project financing and focus on
the topics listed in Table 2.
With the increasing number of energy storage systems (ESS) entering the market, targeting a wide variety
of applications, the IE review
will specifically focus on
the commercial maturity of
the selected technology and
an assessment of how well
the technology matches the
intended application. In an
ESS system, the technology
section will typically include a
36
Customer bill management, solar PV 80 kW,

storage 80 kW, 90% charging from solar PV
Demand charges ($/kW)
Non-coincident demand cost
Peak demand cost
Energy charge
(cents/kW-15min)
Energy cost
25
3.5
3.0
20
2.5
15
2.0
10
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
0
15-min demand
kW-15min
Customer bill optimization

with PV and storage
120
PV production
Reduced 15-min
demand
Storage charging
100
Storage discharging
80
Output of solar +
storage system
60
40
20
0
-20
0:00 2:00 4:00 6:00 8:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00 24:00
6/14/2014
Time-of-use energy charges and multi-component demand charges

require intelligent storage dispatch controls to optimize customer bill
reductions with or without co-located PV. Credit: DNV GL.
high-level review of the selected batteries, system configuration,

power conversion hardware, battery management system (BMS),
as well as a review of the monitoring, communications and control systems, and balance of plant. Performance of existing
installations will typically be assessed with respect to tracked
metrics related to the target application. For example, a historical regulation performance score can be assessed for project targeting ISO frequency regulation.
A unique aspect of ESS that is creating new demand for independent validation is the operational and advanced storage dispatch control software and (BMS) being layered on top of the
battery technology itself. In addition to the hardware and system integration, this link in the system value chain is the fundamental determinant of the revenue streams and cash flows
TABLE 2
Design Review
Technology Review
Contract Review
Performance Review
Feasibility analysis
Major component
evaluations
Permit status
Construction support
Site assessments
Product specifications
Environmental
compliance
Warranty, availability
and O&M
System and
interconnection design
Architecture and
control software
EPC and financial

contracts
System commissioning
and performance tests
Energy and
performance assessment
Performance risk
Regulatory compliance
Final completion notice
Components of a typical Independent Engineering (IE) report. Credit: DNV GL.
used in forming the lending

structures. As the economics
become more favorable, energy storage control software
for peak shifting, energy
firming, and grid resiliency
applications will also require
detailed analysis and thirdparty validation. As more
opportunities arise for aggregated storage to participate in
utility and ISO capacity and
regulation markets, aggregator control layers will require
further layers of validation.
Without independent validation of this key component,
the reliability and robustness
of the other aspects of energy storage projects may be
meaningless, or impede adoption and market growth.
Finally, to assess the revenue requirements for the
installation, an independent review of the storage
contracts and performance
agreements is undertaken. These may include ISO or utility

capacity contracts, demand response contracts, ancillary service
agreements, and/or customer performance guarantees. Understanding the contracted performance requirements and potential
penalties for under-performance is required to capture the risk
to near term and future project revenues.
Fortunately, lessons learned in the sustained growth of wind
and solar project financing will accelerate the adoption of energy storage as many of the standard tools required for assessing risks have been well honed. Confidence in the results of
these independent engineering and technology assessments
depends on the integrity and reputation of the firms conducting the studies.
Terence Terry Schuyler is a principle consultant at DNV
GL where he serves as project manager conducting third-party independent technical due diligence evaluations of PV and
energy storage power electronics/inverters, energy storage
products and integrated PV/ES systems (often referred to as
Bankability Studies).
Michael Kleinberg, PhD, is a senior consultant specializing
in energy storage and advanced distribution system analysis.
Michael is actively assisting California utilities in developing and
assessing their 2014 storage request for offers (RFOs) and has led
development of DNV GLs energy storage cost-effectiveness model,
ES-Grid. Michael is leading technical due diligence efforts to support investment in multiple large-scale energy storage projects
being developed across the U.S.
37
the
he
project
Profiling Stand-out
Renewable Energy
Projects Worldwide
Profiling Stand-out Renewable Energy

Projects Worldwide
Each year at Renewable Energy World Conference, Renewable Energy World
magazine honors our Projects of the Year. These projects are nominated by industry stakeholders and evaluated by a team of PennWell editors. The projects
selected as finalists and honorable mentions are recognized for their role in
advancing the growth of renewable energy.
Our 2015 Project of the Year Finalists and Honorable Mentions are:
1. Finalist: Topaz Solar Farm, a
550-MW solar farm built by
First Solar that when completed in October 2015 was
the largest PV project in the
world. Credit: First Solar.
2. Finalist: Grand Ridge Energy Storage Project, a 31.5-MW
lithium-ion battery system colocated at Invenergys Grand
Ridge wind and solar farms.
Credit: Ivenergy.
3. Honorable Mention: MCAS
Miramar PV + Energy
Storage Microgrid, a 100 percent renewable-powered

microgrid, relying on 230-kW
of PV and 280-kW, 1-MWh
Primus Power flow batteries.
Credit: Primus Power.
4. Honorable Mention: The Hilton
Lively Renewable Power Biomass Project, a 49.9-MW biomass-fired power generation
facility fueled exclusively by
chipped forest waste, built by
Gemma Power Systems. Credit: Gemma Power Systems.
1.
38
AND
THE
R IS
E
N
WIN ere To
H
Click d Out!
Fin
5. Honorable
Mention: The
Head of the U Hydro Project, the first application
of Czech-American company Mavels MT10 micro turbines in the U.S. The project consists of eight micro
turbines installed at an irrigation canal diversion and
drop structure and has a
total nameplate capacity of
1.28 MW. Credit: North Side
Canal.
3.
4.
2.
5.
39
G E OT H E R M A L
The Take Away on

Cost: How Geothermal
Can Compete with Solar
As executives work to improve the perception of geothermal in
the energy industry, service providers
are finding ways to decrease the up front
cost of developing the resource.
JENNIFER DELONY, Associate Editor
NV Energys Jack McGinley recently put the U.S. geothermal

industrys current challenge in succinct terms: Geothermal is
not competing with solar PV on cost, and when it comes to utility power procurements, low cost wins.
McGinley is executive of regulatory and legislative strategy at
NV Energy. Speaking at the Geothermal Resources Council 39th
Annual Meeting in Reno, Nev., in September, McGinley explained
that in the request for proposal (RFP) process for utilities, low
cost, while not the only driver, is the primary driver.
When youre signing contracts at 3.8 cents and 4 cents a
kilowatt-hour, its tough to beat that, he said.
NV Energys most recent RFP went entirely to solar. Utility-scale solar project owners are regularly securing power
purchase agreements at 5 cents per kWh or less, according to
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratorys recent report Utility-Scale Solar 2014. Whereas the cost for geothermal power
can be anywhere from 5 cents per kWh to 8 cents per kWh.
The good news for geothermal, according to McGinley, is
that large power customers are eager for renewables, and they
do not want it all in solar or wind they want a balanced
clean energy portfolio, including geothermal. Those big consumers, however, have a limit on how much they will pay for
that energy.
40
Youve really got to sharpen your pencils, McGinley

said.
Further exacerbating the
issue for the U.S. geothermal
industry are the solar industrys favorable subsidies as
compared to those given to
geothermal. Solar currently
receives a 30 percent federal
tax credit, while geothermal
receives 10 percent. Although
The KD-58 Drill Rig.

Credit: Power Engineers.
the solar federal tax credit is set to go down to 10 percent in

2017, solar also receives state tax credits/rebates and property
tax exemptions as well as special rates and net metering. None of
those additional incentives are extended to geothermal.
Isaac Angel, CEO of geothermal developer Ormat Technologies,
said during the GRC annual meeting that the geothermal industry has a problem, and its probably a perception issue.
According to Angel, geothermal can compete with solar on
any day, if the costs of integration of intermittent power sources
are taken into consideration.
We have to convince decision makers that we have a great
solution, and it is cost effective, he said. Its a resource that is
coming, its available when

you build it correctly and it
exists for a long time.
Mike Long, senior project
manager of the strategic consulting group at Power Engineers, agrees with Angels
assessment.
If you talk about competitive issues facing the geothermal market, its really related to utilities not fully placing
41
G e ot h e r m a l
integration costs onto solar and wind, Long said in an

interview. Geothermal is a great base load power; it
can be flexible, and under the right conditions, geothermal can be a load follow, but when utilities are really
loading up on solar, they are not accounting for the fact
that they have to put in a heavy transmission infrastructure that only supports a generation technology that is
producing 40 percent of the time.
Improving to Compete
Long said that, despite current challenges, the opportunities for geothermal to begin competing with solar
and wind can come through technological advancements that will make exploration and development less
expensive and drive down the cost per kilowatt hour.
The U.S. Department of Energys Frontier ObserZorlu Alasehir Geothermal 45 MW Power
vatory for Research in Geothermal Energy FORGE
Plant. Credit: Power Engineers.
program, for example, is looking for ways to identify systems that provide stimulation techniques that
improve production of wells or help reduce the number of dry
According to Long, drillers
holes that are drilled.
realize a 50 percent success
Kevin Wallace, renewable generation lead at Power Engineers,
rate during the initial explosaid in an interview that more targeted drilling and better results
ration phase, which goes to 75
from drilling programs will help save developers money.
percent during the confirmaThe economics of drilling are especially challenging, and one
tion stage, and 80 to 90 pergoal for developers is to reduce the risk of the exploration phase.
cent for final production wells.
Usually, one out of the first three holes you drill is dry, WalWith information that can
lace said. That represents not a small amount of money.
be gathered through seismic
testing, gravity surveys, geochemistry, geophysics and
geology, Wallace said, surface studies are improving,
and developers are turning
to those technologies more
and more.
They are learning how to
integrate all the various information available from the different studies and come up
with a comprehensive model
that will help in deciding
where to drill, he said.
50 MW Los Azufres Geothermal Plant. Credit: Power Engineers.
42
Conference &Exhibition
26-28 March 2017

Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre
Abu Dhabi, UAE
www.power-gen-middleeast.com
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Join us again in 2017 for the 14th POWER-GEN Middle East conference & exhibition for the
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OWNED & PRODUCED BY:
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SUPPORTED BY:
G e ot h e r m a l
3D Model Detailed Design of

Zorlu Kizildere Triple Flash 80
MW Geothermal Plant. Credit:
Power Engineers.
William Osborn, VP of Geothermal Resource Group, said

that one of the biggest mistakes that the companys customers make is not studying a
geothermal resource enough
before embarking on a drilling campaign, which is both
expensive and risky.
Weve worked on projects
where they not only do a poor
job of selecting where theyre
going to do their first drilling,
but theyre also unprepared
to drill when they get out
there with the drilling rig, he
said. Its simple things like
ensuring they have a good
44
supply of diesel fuel and contingency plans.

According to Osborn, the companys standard advice to its customers is to do more upfront research and due diligence than they
were originally planning for because it is much cheaper relative to
drilling, which can cost between $35,000 and $100,000 per day.
The geology, the geophysics, the geochemistry; that is what
I mean when I say due diligence, he said. When we look out
across the landscape, how are we to decide where to drill the
first hole? The only way to know, he added, is with geoscience.
Developers just dont do enough of that, he said. People are
intrigued by drilling a hole they think that drilling a well will
prove their resource, but the problem is, its very easy to miss.
Geothermal Resource Group is also helping its customers at
the time of drilling by working with DOE and Sandia National Laboratories to advance drilling technology through development of microboreholes.
Historically, drillers in the geothermal industry used large
diameter boreholes (about 8.5 inches) to prove the resources,
G e ot h e r m a l
according to Osborn. In the mid-1990s, he said, the industry began to drill a smaller diameter borehole (about six inches), which is called a slim hole. Today, with government support, Geothermal Resource Group is working to advance a much
smaller diameter hole (three inches), called a microborehole.
We have a lot of micro-tools and instruments that are available
that we didnt have in the 90s that allow us to measure resource
conditions in these microboreholes, he said. We think that is
where geothermal resource exploration is heading, and every time
we decrease the size of the hole, drilling gets cheaper.
Osborn added that it is feasible for those boreholes to become
smaller and smaller in the future.
It takes stronger materials and smaller instruments, but
thats where were headed, he said.
Market Competition
According to Wallace, an increase in competition within the
geothermal market, on both the flash and binary sides, also
could begin to drive down

prices naturally.
He said that the recent
acquisition of Alstom by GE
will serve to heat up competition on the flash side, as
the company will now go up
against Fuji, Toshiba and
Mitsubishi.
Those are four very
strong players, Wallace said.
In addition, Ormat, Turboden, Atlas Copco and
Exergy currently operate in
the binary market, he said,
adding that between those
four vendors, there is a lot of
competition.
Hydro Resources-West, Inc.

Your reSource for Geothermal,
Directional, Deep Water and Injection Well
Drilling and Completion Services
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45
dat
a
poi
nt s
Q1 2016
VAISALA PREDICTS THE

IMPACTS OF EL NIO ON
WIND ENERGY PRODUCTION
ACROSS THE U.S.
Vaisalas U.S. Wind
Performance Forecast provides
a view of how wind speeds will
vary from their long-term
averages in the rst quarter of
2016. Blue indicates below
normal conditions while red
indicates above normal
conditions. The small black dots
show the locations of
operational wind projects. This
forecast is based on the wide
agreement of the weather
community and global climate
models that an El Nio will
persist and continue to
strengthen into the beginning
of next year. It was created by
examining several similar events
from three of the leading
reanalysis datasets, each
representing 35 years, then
generating a composite
prediction based on the
historical information.
46
U.S. WIND PERFORMANCE
FORECAST
Departure from normal

Below
Neutral
Above
CREDIT: Vaisala
47
T H E R M A L R E N E WA B L E E N E RG Y
Commercializing Standalone
Thermal Energy Storage
If thermal energy storage is less expensive than
batteries, why arent we hearing more about it?
SUSAN KREAMER, Contributor
Two innovators in highly efficient thermal energy storage materials believe that thermal storage could work as a standalone
storage play, not just as part of a more familiar Concentrated
Solar Power (CSP) project designed for electricity generation.
Anoop Mathur, founder and CEO of Terrafore Technologies,
is a DOE awardee for his work on super-efficient advanced storage materials. He first suggested this possible new marketfor
thermal storage as a pure storage play.His thinks that this
kind of solar thermal energy plant would be designed to store
all of its energy and be called upon on-demand like a battery.
I believe, in the immediate future, we should be looking at
this market,said Mathur.Analysis has shown that using a
large turbine with a small solar field and up to three hours of
storage is significantly more profitable, if allowed to participate in ancillary services such as spinning reserve and regulation rather than just the day-ahead energy market. The benefitto-cost ratio was calculated to be more than 25 percent for the
California market.
The way to make this form of solar act purely as storage
would be to oversize the turbine in a full CSP project, and then
run the plant just to fill the storage tanks,Mathur suggested.
For example, a solar field designed for 100 MWe with a 200
MWe turbine and up to three hours of storage, supplying 300
MWhs a day, can have higher revenues to justify the capital
costs than a plant designed for day-ahead energy markets
Generating entirely from the storage on demand, this kind
of grid storage would look like a solar thermal power plant but
act like a battery.
The utility industry pays high dollars for guaranteed power
when they need it. For these markets the thermal storage route
is definitely profitable today, Mathur said.
48
Solving Power Block Cost

Halotechnics founder and
CEO Justin Raade has also
explored deploying standalone thermal storage in a
similar pure storage play,
because of its economy: storage with molten salts in a
tower CSP plant costs about
a tenth of the cost of battery
storage, at around $30 per
kWh, compared to $250 per
kWh for batteries.
Molten salt storage tanks at

the Solana Generating Station
in Arizona. Credit: Abengoa.
Initially, he envisioned a standalone storage tank of molten

salt with PV or wind supplying electricity to heat the molten
salts, and a steam turbine at the other end to turn the heat back
to electricity for the grid. But after estimating the cost of standalone storage fed by electricity from PV (or wind) Raade found
that most of what stood in the way of cost-effectiveness was the
inclusion of the turbine used to transform the heat energy back
into electricity.
Power block costs canceled out the savings of standalone
thermal energy storage. When thermal energy storage is
included as part of a CSP project, the cost is minimized because
the power block is already needed for electricity generation,
so it is part of the plant cost, not of just storage, which is just
tanks, piping, heat exchangers and cheap molten salts.

But if not amortized by a full
power plant, the power block
is costly.
Armed with this realization, Raade took another
approach. Instead of building
a standalone thermal storage
unit, fed by electricity from
PV or wind, he now envisions
offering this storage as a unit
that can be piggybacked on
49
Chiles Atacama Desert will

soon be home to the first
hybrid CSP with Molten Salt
Storage plus PV projects
to help power mining
operations, like this copper
mine. Credit: Shutterstock.
an already existing turbine,

cutting power block cost.
The thermal storage unit
would be attached to the
steam turbine power block
in a combined-cycle natural gas plant, and be
commercialized as an efficiency improvement. By turning

stored energy back into electricity using an existing steam turbine, costs are minimized. And as Glasspoint has done, with
1 GW of solar thermal for industrial steam production, Raade
believes that the deeper pockets of the fossil fuel industry could
help him get from innovation to commercialization.
Raades long-term plan is to use earnings from this thermal energy storage using
The falling cost of concentrating solar power
bankable molten salts to
fund deployment of his
21
signature molten glass
Receiver/heat
transfer fluid
storage. Halotechnics is
3
an ARPA-E award winner
Power
plant
4
for high-temperature mol13
Levelized cost
ten glass phase-changing
of electricity
Thermal
in 2010
material, a storage medi5
2
storage
(cents/kWh)
um for the advanced CSP
4
storage of the future.
6
Solar
Our next generation
field
9
2
1
product would utilize our
2
molten glass energy stor5
1
age at 1,500C and would
2
integrate into a com2013
2020
2010
bined cycle power plant in
The costs of concentrating solar power (CSP) with storage is expected to fall
much the same way, said
Raade.
to less than 6 cents per kWh by 2020. Credit: U.S. Department of Energy
These temperatures
Sunshot Initiative.
50
CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION
19-21 JULY 2016
SANDTON CONVENTION CENTRE, JOHANNESBURG,

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA
CREATING POWER
FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

SPEAKER OPPORTUNITIES NOW AVAILABLE
Industry experts are invited to be a speaker at POWER-GEN Africa & DistribuTECH Africa 2016, Africas leading
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This is your chance to present your wealth of knowledge, ideas and experience and network with strategic and technical decision makers
and planners from the region and around the world. And with over 200 strategic, technical, renewable and transmission & distribution
topics to choose from, you have no shortage of material upon which to base your abstract.
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WEDNESDAY 6 JANUARY 2016
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T h e r m a l r e n e wa b l e e n e r g y
Artist rendering of the SolarReserve Copiap plant. After construction began, a second tower was added to the
design. Credit: SolarReserve.
are significantly ahead of

their time for the concentrating solar power industry,
which now operates at a high
of 1,050 F and freezes at
550 F. The DOE SunShot Initiative is funding research
into developing the receivers
and tank materials needed to
contain higher temperature
storage materials for commercial deployment by 2020.
Thermal Renewables To
Replace Peaker Plants?
The grid needs an alternative to the polluting singlecycle peaker plants, both
for instant response and for
52
several hours of dispatchable generation on demand. Could

solar thermal storage units displace these dirty peaker plants?
Well, maybe not.
Single cycle plants can respond within a minute, which is
why they are deployed as peakers. But there is a penalty for
that fast action. They emit 1,365 pounds of CO2 per MWh.
At 825 pounds of CO2 per MWh, combined-cycle natural gas
plants are somewhat cleaner, but too slow to be peakers. Their
response is limited by steam turbine ramp rates, which is typically about 10 percent a minute. CSP plants use the same kind
of back-end power block, so they also cannot be instant-on like
the higher-emitting peaker. However, if a CSP plant is running
off its stored heat, it could start to respond in just ten minutes,
Mathur said.
As a Solar Battery for PV

In general, the thermal storage included with CSP decouples solar generation from energy that must be taken whenever it is generated into a form of solar that could be available
T h e r m a l r e n e wa b l e e n e r g y
whenever it is needed. Molten salt thermal energy storage used in conjunction with
CSP supplies a dispatchable
form of solar energy. Some
of the solar can be stored to
be available when the grid
requires it.
But CSP could also be built
in a hybrid with a PV plant,
where virtually all of the CSP is
stored for use on demand, creating what amounts to a solarpowered battery for PV.
For the first time, such a
combination is under construction now in two PV/CSP
plants in Chiles Atacama
Desert, with the CSP being stored for use as a battery. This
region primarily powers mining operations, which need power
24/7, and solar is able to supply this round-the-clock need by
combining two forms of solar generation.
At Atacama -2 Abengoa is building a hybrid combining 100
MW of PV with 110 MW of CSP with a record 17.5 hours of thermal storage. To make up the initial ten-minute gap, Abengoa
will also include a small (12 MW, 4 MWh) actual battery to supply the first seconds and minutes of instant-on power.
SolarReserve has completed permitting for a second such
solar hybrid, combining 260 MW of CSP with 150 MW of PV at
Copiap to supply 24-hour base load generation, by oversizing the solar thermal aspect and generating from its storage, as
Mathur suggested.
Whether by marrying CSPs storage with PV as Abengoa and
SolarReserve are doing, or piggybacking it onto traditional thermal generation as Halotechnics is proposing the economy of
thermal energy storage is now beginning to be utilized.
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B I O E N E RG Y
Are We There Yet?

A Biofuel Refinery Update
As oil prices
plummet, are
drop-in aviation biofuel
refineries ever going to
be built?
TOM EWING, Contributor
In September 2014, the Department of Energy (DOE), along

with the Departments of
the Navy and Agriculture,
announced a significant financial partnership to advance the
construction of three biorefineries, infrastructure capable

of producing drop-in fuels to meet the needs of the military and private sector.
This announcement included endorsements from Navy
Secretary Ray Mabus, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
and Deputy Energy Secretary Daniel Poneman. This publicprivate partnership would expand the operational capability
of the Navy and Marines, use American grown fuels, foster
employment in an advanced biofuel sector, and help reduce
carbon emissions.
DOEs private sector partners are Fulcrum Bioenergy, based in California, building a refinery in Storey County, NV (near Reno, NV); Emerald Biofuels, a Chicago company, building in Port Arthur, TX; and Red Rock Biofuels,
based in Colorado, building near Longview, OR. [Red Rock
and Joule announced a merger as this magazine went to
press.] The three projects, when
completed are expected to produce more than 100 million gallons of military grade fuel beginning in 2016 and 2017 at a price
competitive with their petroleum
counterparts.
An August 2015 project update
indicated that FedEx and Southwest Airlines agreed to buy fuel
Senior Airman Jacob Prine checks the
fuel connection to a F-15 Eagle prior to
a flight test of new, environmentallyfriendly fuel at Eglin Air Force Base,
Fla. The Air Force is working toward
changing half of the continental U.S.
jet fuel requirement to alternative fuels
by 2016. Credit: U.S. Air Force / 2nd Lt.
Andrew Caulk.
54
Bioenergy
from Red Rock and that United and Cathay Pacific Airlines
had invested in Fulcrum and
Emerald Biofuels
would be purchasing its fuel.
These purchase agreements are
Corporate Headquarters: Chicago, IL
important because demand is
Biorefinery location: Port Arthur, TX
critical for supply and investors
Feedstock: Non-edible oils and animal fats.
wont fund a project unless they
Finished product: Renewable diesel.
are pretty sure that there is an
Quantity (max.): 82 million gallons annually.
offtaker for the product. Unfortunately, however, there seems
Fulcrum Bioenergy
to be little progress on building
Corporate Headquarters: Pleasanton, CA
the refinery projects themselves.
Biorefinery location: Storey County, NV. The plant will
Any refinery project, of
course, is complex, from siting
be called the Sierra BioFuels Plant.
to engineering to construction.
Feedstock: Municipal solid waste.
Plus, alternative fuel projects
Finished product: Renewable syncrude upgraded and
are invariably affected by the
processed into a low-carbon jet fuel product.
price of oil. Cheap oil forces even
Quantity: 10 million gallons annually.
tougher scrutiny from financiers
who want assurances that a new
Red Rock Biofuels Merging with Joule
fuel can remain cost competitive
Corporate Headquarters: Fort Collins, CO
and that producers can retain
Biorefinery location: Longview, OR
customers (and repay loans).
Finally biorefinery projects, like
Feedstock: Woody biomass, forest by-products.
all refinery projects, present sigFinished product: Jet, diesel, and naphtha fuels.
nificant industrial-manufacturQuantity: 12 million gallons annually.
ing challenges requiring close
regulatory scrutiny for safety,
air, water and hazardous materials impacts. Permitting takes time.
We are not concerned with
DOEs August update does not mention revised constructhe current timeline, he
tion and production schedules. However, since 2016 is less than
wrote in an e-mail reply to
three months away, and refinery construction has not startquestions. The Department
ed, production timelines have obviously slipped. Are these sigexpects construction on one
nificant delays or just indicative of inevitable difficulties within
project to begin soon likely in
complex projects? Perhaps a more important question: are they
the next few months.
cautionary delays?
The companies cannot
A DOE spokesperson expressed confidence that the projects
draw any federal money
are proceeding as expected. Emerald, Red Rock and Fulcrum
until all private sector
are finishing their permitting process and obtaining financing.
financing is in place. Again,
These activities take time particularly in a low oil price market.
cheap oil makes this tough.
The Projects
55
Bioenergy
The company is confident that its business model can

handle short- and
long-term volatile
oil markets. Fulcrum writes that it
can remain cash
flow positive with oil
Rendering of the Sierra BioFuels Plant, which will be entering construction later this
below $30 per baryear. Credit: Fulcrum BioEnergy.
rel, provide good
returns with oil at
In addition, each project is
$50 per barrel and extremely attractive returns with oil at $80
based on relatively untested
per barrel. These price points put the company in a good spot.
technologies and processes.
In July, the US Energy Information Agency forecast a 2018 oil
These unknowns add addiprice around $75 per barrel, rising to $120 per barrel by 2035.
tional risk. DOE remains conRick Barraza, Fulcroms Vice President of Administration,
fident, though, that each comsaid that last May Fulcrum finalized a fixed-price engineering,
pany is close to completing
procurement and construction contract with Abengoa, proall due diligence for invesviding cost, schedule and performance guarantees. He said
tors and regulators. For DOE,
that Fulcrum expects to begin construction during the fourth
it is not particularly materiquarter of this year. On financing, Barazza said funds are
al whether fuel production
starts in 2017 or 2018 as long
Forest residue
Acid or SO2
pH injection
as the projects are meeting
T (C)
pH
and completing substantial
297 L/tonne
T
milestones.
at 48.9 g/L
Among the three compaPretreatment
Ethanol
nies, Fulcrum appears to be
time
tT
0
closest to hitting the start
button. The company has
Pretreatment
Simultaneous
been working at this a long
Acid
enzymatic
time first entering capiinjection
Saccharification
tal markets in 2011, trying
and fermentation
Size
to secure financing on a proreduction
Steam, NaHSO3
prietary technology that uses
municipal solid waste as the
Wood is made of simple sugars, a building block compound for biofuels.
initial feedstock that is evenHowever, these sugars first have to be unbundled from other molecules,
tually processed into liquid
which is tricky. This flow diagram illustrates one approach, using
fuels.
sulfite pretreatment, by researcher Jinlan Cheng and colleagues. Credit:
Fulcrums website references swings in oil prices.
56
Northwest Advanced Renewables Alliance (NARA).

Bioenergy
United is a strategic investor in Fulcrum BioEnergy. Credit: United.
in place to begin construction and that the company

is finalizing the loan documentation under our $105
million loan guarantee with
the USDA at which point
these (federal) funds will be
available. Barazza expects
Fulcrum to start operations
in late 2017.
Emerald and Red Rock are
harder to assess. DOEs comments do not singularly reference each company. Emerald and Red Rock officials did
not return interview requests
nor respond to e-mails. From
public records, Red Rock has
received an air permit from
the Oregon Department of
Environmental Quality, an
important step. Emerald has
a permit, submitted July 31, 2015, which was approved on September 20. Paper work, at least, shows progress.
For energy and environmental policies theres a lot riding on
the success of these public-private partnerships, much more
than the hoped-for success of three companies.
DOE and its partner agencies, as well as White House leadership, need to demonstrate that policy initiatives and financial
subsidies can build a new, competitive energy industry almost
from the ground up.
Time is a factor. People need to see shiny tanker trucks, filled
with biofuels, pulling onto the airport tarmac soon. Too long a
wait foments opposition. With 2016 an election year a partisan
shift could force an unfriendly reevaluation of federal alternative
energy programs. Contentious issues will fade when the US Navy
can buy jet fuel from a Red Rock or a Fulcrum, at no extra hit to
the U.S. taxpayer.
Finally U.S. airlines need biofuel to help decrease carbon
emissions while still expanding service to meet increased travel
demands. FAA wants U.S. airlines to use one billion gallons of
biofuel by 2018. Maybe thats a stretch goal but some consistent
level of supply needs to be in the market soon. The next year is
critical.
57
H Y D RO P OW E R
Propelling a New
Profitability Model for
Hydro Generation
Project owners seeking to get more profit
from their hydro assets should consider
harnessing minimum flow.
KEVIN QUIRION, Contributor
Many hydropower plants are fed by reservoirs that are used

by homeowners, boaters, swimmers, hikers, wildlife and others. The operating license issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) may have conditions that require a
minimum water release to benefit wildlife, tourism and recreational activities. Historically, the main generating units
of the dam have produced the total electrical output of the
plant, but these units are not designed to operate during very
low flow periods of the year and may periodically be shut
down for other reasons. During these times the water flowing
through the minimum flow system has not been harnessed
to generate power.
Constructing a small powerhouse adjacent to the dam to
capture electricity from the continuous water flow required
can do more than supplement generation; it can change the
model for power markets. Owners of hydroelectric power projects can become continuous power producers, maintaining a
unit connected to the grid at all times. Therefore Independent
System Operators (ISOs) may allow owners to use other generating assets to swing during peak times, maximizing profitability by supporting electrical usage during peak demand.
58
By establishing an
extremely efficient, compact
powerhouse and fast-tracking
project construction; the payback on the new powerhouse
can be greatly improved.
The Case For Minimum Flow Projects

Minimum flow projects can
be developed with minimal
impact on the environment
One of the diversion dams on Cache

la Poudre River in Colorado near
Fort Collins supplying water for
farmland irrigation, fall scenery with
gold foliage and low flow. Credit:
Shutterstock.
and communities taking advantage of generating capacity

from existing impoundments. These run-of-the-river hydroelectricity projects typically involve small-scale generating capacity,
yet can have dramatic impact on overall system profitability.
Generating power from a minimum flow system, owners
can provide a uniform power source for base load requirements. The regional or independent transmission organization
(RTO or ISO) may then allow project owners to use the energy generated from the rest of the system to meet peak power
demand and therefore profit more from the rest of the systems
generating assets. There may also be renewable energy grants
available for these projects. Overall, there is a powerful case
for developing minimum

flow systems.
With that said, most minimum flow projects require
a multi-year process that
involves applications for
license amendments and
related meetings and studies, as well as the manufacture of turbine and auxiliary
equipment and engineering
development.
59
H y d ro p ow e r
Remote circuit
breaker racking.
Credit: Eaton.
How To Determine if You Can Benfit from a Minimum Flow Project

The first step is an analysis of existing generation assets and
expansion potential. It may be possible to take advantage of
existing infrastructure to reduce project costs. Beyond looking at
the existing system, the impact of the new capacity on the entire
system should also be assessed.
Once the basic, upfront analysis has occurred and the new generating system is designed, the value of the minimum flow project
can be established. This typically accounts for energy, capacity,
reserves and any renewable energy credits available. The energy calculation should account for additional generation for dayahead and real-time market bidding or for selling forward, capacity factor, and operations during peak and off-peak hours. Project
owners may be well advised to also evaluate capacity and the
potential to contract capacity with others in order to hedge longterm price risk. Utilizing minimum flow assets connected to the
grid virtually all of the time, power producers can dispatch other
units into the spinning reserve markets.
Powerhouse Design Considerations And Best Practices

Constructing a powerhouse for hydroelectric facilities typically is complex. There may be limited space to store equipment,
inconvenient site access, tight project schedules and coordination with other system assets that may include aging electrical
equipment. A project partner able to provide turnkey services
60
from start to completion can

help reduce risk of project
delays and problems yielding a safer, more reliable and
cost-efficient power system.
Key design aspects include
safe and reliable switchgear,
system monitoring and control. Switchgear provides
centralized control and protection for power distribution equipment, while the
monitoring and control systems allow local and remote
access to real-time data
providing the information
maintenance personnel need.
The switchgear installed
at hydroelectric facilities has
been known to operate for
several decades. It is critical
that the equipment employed
is designed to enhance safety, protect personnel during routine maintenance and
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H y d r o p ow e r
maintain production reliability. Front access only

designs minimize space requirements with a small
footprint and allow for flexible location of equipment within a facility. Todays most innovative
equipment can even extend arc-resistant ratings
during routine maintenance.
The 24/7 nature of the power generation business makes remote telemetry critical in any location, particularly at automated, unattended plants.
The control system can allow project owners to optimize output, enhance reliability and manage the
facility remotely. Smart phones can allow operators
to remain informed of plant status and alarm conditions and even provide access for remote control.
This is accomplished using a mixture of technologies
including SMS text messaging of alarm conditions generated by
the station HMI, automated status and production reporting via
email and even remote access and control through web-enabled
smart phones.
Best Practices for Small Hydroelectric Power System Designs

1. Engage with service organizations that can take the project from start to finish and provide a single point of
accountability.
2. Engage with a single team to design, construct and commission the project.
3. Work with manufacturers able to provide a high-level of technical support, not just during the project, but also after all the
equipment is installed and commissioned.
4. Ensure suppliers can provide product and technology training.
5. Look for project partners able to reduce procurement cycle
times and help expedite the project.
6. Full function factory acceptance testing for switchgear, protection and controls, and generator simulator can minimize onsite time and construction costs.
7. Manufacturer-created wiring harnesses can further drive
down costs.
8. Remote racking mechanisms for switchgear help advance
safety by providing a means to remotely insert or remove
circuit breakers and auxiliary drawers the technology
helps increase the distance between the operator and live
components.
62
Switchgear with type 2B arcresistant ratings. Credit: Eaton.
To further extend safety

during maintenance, projects
can incorporate industry-leading switchgear designs that
extend type 2B arc-resistant
ratings, even with the instrument and breaker secondary
terminal door.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, an additional 250 GW
of power will be needed by
2035 in the U.S. Minimum
flow projects can help meet
this demand sustainably and
help owners improve profitability. Robust service organizations are helping advance
minimum flow projects and
improve costs and system performance to maximize project return on investment.
Kevin Quirion is an engineer and manager at Eaton.
Adver t iser s Index
[ cont from pg. 64]
For more information on the products and services found

in this issue click here.
we have available in the UK. A recent

independent study by Frontier Economics showed that to replace Draxs
three biomass-fired power units with
offshore wind would have cost the UK
an extra 2.5bn - 3.4bn. The UKs
Department of Energy and Climate
Change has commissioned a new independent study into full system costs
that is, the true end-to-end cost of
renewable electricity generation
and we eagerly await the results.
Biomass is reliable, sustainable and
cost effective and is therefore a vital
part of the UKs energy mix. In the
midst of an increasingly heated, political debate about energy policy, all
renewable energy generators like
Drax that offer a clear answer to
a real problem need to make sure we
speak up about why we are here in
the first place: the need for reliable,
affordable, low-carbon energy.
Capstone Turbine Corp.63
Renewable Energy
World Asia19
Hydro Resources West45

Hytorc, Division of
Unex Corp. 31
Renewable Energy World

International13
Shoals Technologies Group2
Max Daetwyler
Corporation30
NexansCV2
Socomec63
Solar Energy Trade
Shows LLC11
Nuscale Power4
POWER-GEN Africa 201651
Solar Promotion International

GmbH29
POWER-GEN India &

Central Asia61
Surrette Battery Co. Ltd.25

Trojan Battery Company32
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Renewable Energy
World.com14
The Adveritsers Index is published as a service. The publisher
does not assume any liability for errors or omissions.
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63
Last
the
WORD
The Energy Trilemma Is Unavoidable

But It Is Too Easily Forgotten
Dorothy
Thompson is
Chief Executive of
Drax Group Plc.
64
Public concerns about energy bills

combined with an increasingly vocal
anti-green lobby has meant the
renewable energy sector is having
to work extra hard to make its case.
In doing this it has to respect legitimate concerns about the cost of living but it must also reflect reality
and ensure that all audiences understand the backdrop against which the
renewable energy sector operates and
why it exists in the first place.
I have been the chief executive of
Drax Group, which operates the UKs
largest power station responsible for
meeting 7-8 percent of our electricity, for ten years. In that time we have
transformed from being the UKs biggest emitter of CO2 to Europes largest decarbonization project. Yet the
challenge we seek to meet in doing so
has barely changed. It is, however, too
easily forgotten.
This challenge is often referred to
as the energy trilemma that is,
how do we keep the lights on in an
environmentally friendly way whilst
keeping costs down for consumers?
The trilemma is not something we
can ignore. The UK needs reliable
electricity that can respond to peaks
and troughs on demand. We are also
bound by legal targets to reduce carbon emissions by 80 percent compared with 1990 levels by 2050 and to
source 20 percent of our energy from

renewable sources by 2020. Furthermore, public concerns about energy
costs mean that a solution that doesnt
break the bank is front and center
for policymakers.
Drax is proud that it offers such an
answer through its use of sustainable biomass fuel made from low
grade wood and residues sourced
from commercial forestry and timber
processing operations, primarily in
North America.
Converting to sustainable burning
biomass in place of coal ensures we
continue to deliver power on demand,
whenever it is needed, and whatever
the weather. Biomasss environmental credentials are also impressive.
Converting to biomass means Draxs
carbon emissions are 86 percent less
compared to coal. This summer we
saved our 20 millionth tonne of carbon and by the time we have converted half of the plant to run on biomass,
due to be completed in 2016, we will
be saving twelve million tonnes of
carbon per year the equivalent of
taking more than three million cars
off our roads.
These conversions also allow us
to use the existing power station and
distribution network meaning biomass is one of the cheapest renew[ cont on pg. 63]
able energy sources

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to cleaner and more affordable energy for their residential,

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commercial and agricultural customers in New York.

factures Organic Rankine Cycle sys-

NY Green Bank, a core initiative of the Governors

tems with radial outflow turbine

Reforming the Energy Vision plan, is providing a total of

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$49 million for the three transactions and leveraging up to

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$178 million in additional private capital from private sec-

Walker Ranch Energy geothermal proj-

tor partners and financial institutions. The deals include

ect in Malta, Idaho (USA). The company

$25 million to support a new warehouse facility for Level

hopes the partnership will open up the

Solar a solar provider that designs and installs systems

North American market to its products.

for residential homes at no cost to the consumer; $4 million

The Walker Ranch Energy project is

in revolving construction loans and a partnership with U.S.

a geothermal binary plant exploiting a

Bank to support United Winds installation of over 160 dis-

medium enthalpy geothermal source

tributed wind energy projects for residential, commercial

(140C, 285F) for an installed capacity

and agricultural customers throughout New York; and $20

of 32 MWe. Agua Caliente LLC, a com-

million along with a $50 million warehouse facility provided

pany majority owned by AMG Nation-

by Citi for Renew Financial to expand its consumer lending